Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 257, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1914 — WRITES AGAIN TO OPPOSE CONSTITUTION [ARTICLE]

WRITES AGAIN TO OPPOSE CONSTITUTION

Questions Correctness of Prohibition and Doubts Benefits of Equal Voting Rights. Editors Republican:

At the urgent solicitation of a number of friends, I desire with your permission to continue the investigation of the proposec change in our state constitution. From articles I have read and perhaps have been read by all, the objects to be obtained have been fully set forth. One writer shows the marvelous growth of population and wealth of the state .and the different conditions in all lines of industry that now exist, but does not .show where in any case that calls for remedial legislation that this need cannot be obtained under the old constitution which has stood for 61 years and under which the state has made marvelous progress and unless it can be shown that in one or more cases the old has shown its impotency in supplying our every need, it is the best reason in the world why it should stand for 61 years longer, or until there are revealed conditions that cannot be met by it. So we think of all the new things to be obtained under- the new constitution it would be well for us to seriously inquire, will they be worth what they cost us, and -will the people of Indiana be proud of them when they get thepi? As prohibition is one and perhaps the most important of all desired, let us consider it a moment. Through

prohibition some seem to think jve will have obtained a.great victory for temperance, setting forth the idea that prohibition and temperance are synonymous, when the fact is that prohibition is no more like temperance than temperance is like habitual drunkenness: temperance is the middle ground between the two extrem s. We live in what we call the temperate zone, neither torid nor frigid, but having something of both, butt of neither to excess, and so we may say a temperate man is not a prohibitionist; neither is he a drunkard. Suppose we secure i new constitution and through it absolute prohibition so that not one man or woman for that matter could get a drop to dirnk. Could it in tnlth be said of us that we are a temperate people when we would tell the people of-other states that we have not one diunkard among us all, and when asked as to the cause, We would say there were on intoxicants to be had; but when urged to explain farther we would have to confess that if opportunity offered 25 per cent would get drunk. Would he, could he, think we were & temperate people? Would we ;hink a man a good citizen who would steal your property if he did not fear the law? Would not a man be a inurdere rwho would kill his fellow if he dared? So, also, is a man a drunkard who would get drunk if opportunity offered. A people who are sober, who are honest, only because they are compelled by law to be so, are much like white sepulchers, nice on the outside but inwardly demons; and this is the very thing which will be created under any condition where men and women are constrained by law. Perhaps these arguments will be classified as antiquated, but we cannot help but think the principles of antiquity should be applied to many things, and the admonition of old Jeremiah may apply to our people in many ways. They were urged to stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and they should find rest for their souls, but they said they would not walk therein; they needed a new constitution, and like the people now, will have it even though it cost orfe million was in the world today he would oppose the new constitution in so far as absolute prohibition is concerned. He was called a glutton and wine-biber. He turned w’ater into wine and had it served at the marriage feasts. Paul advised the use of wine to" a young man in the ministry, and yet with all his eloquence he argued"for righteousness, for temperance and of judgment to come. I believe that men ought to live soberly, righteously and Godly in the world, but they ought to do so from a more noble principle thah a principle of law. We love to think of our mothers, our wives and daughters as being' noble and virtuous, not because the constitution by law would make them so, but because they love the principles that belong to it. So, also, I would that all men

everywhere might live .sober and upright lives, not for fear of the law as slaves would, but for reasons more noble; because it .is manly to do so. On the subject of equal suffrage I do not that mulch would be lost or much gained by it. . I have made Inquiry as 1 to its workings in Colorado and find things remain much as they were before. Most wives> vote as their husbands do. Some do not, but in the main there has but little harm or good come from it. To put it in operation here might make more opportunity for some women who would rather gad about the country than they would to make a home for husband and family. I say it might give them a better right under the law, but just why we should have a new constitution for this I cannot